Friday, November 25, 2011

14 Bodies identified from Guadalajara mass slaying

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) - A baker, a truck driver, a soft-drink vendor and a dental technician were among the 26 men found bound, gagged, slain and left in the center of Guadalajara, a state prosecutor said Friday.

Written in motor oil on the victims' bodies were the names of the Zetas and Millenium drug cartels. Law enforcement officials and analysts saw that as a possible indication the two allied gangs were announcing their intent to seize a city historically controlled by the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

The Zetas and Sinaloa have emerged from years of Mexican drug wars as the largest cartels in the nation, and potential competitors for control of smuggling and other businesses worth billions of dollars a year. Both frequently form alliances of convenience with smaller local gangs.

Analysts cautioned, however, that the killers in Guadalajara may also have been engaging in an isolated act of retaliation for the slaughter of dozens of men dumped on a roadway in September 600 miles away in the eastern, Gulf coast city of Veracruz. Authorities blamed that killing on the New Generation, a gang believed to be working with the Sinaloa cartel. A video posted by men claiming to be the Veracruz killers said the victims were Zetas.

The next few weeks will be crucial in determining whether Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, begins dissolving into the chaotic killing, kidnapping and streetfighting that has devastated cities and towns along the U.S. border, said Samuel Logan, director of Southern Pulse, a risk analysis firm specializing in Latin American organized crime.

"The Mexican government has to react quickly and strongly," Logan said. "This could be the beginning of Guadalajara moving into a more insecure environment ... We need a little more time to watch things play out."

The identities of 14 of the men slain in Guadalajara were released Friday by Jalisco state prosecutor Tomas Coronado, who said that only two had criminal records, without providing details.

Among the victims were Alejandro Robles Vidal, 22, who had been working as a dental technician in the nearby city of Zapopan for three years and disappeared Monday evening.

He was identified by his father, Coronado said.

Also among the dead was Jose Antonia Parga Guareno, 23, a cargo-truck driver who disappeared Tuesday and was identified by his father, Coronado said.

The prosecutor cautioned the press and public not to draw conclusions about the victims' potential involvement in drug cartel activity, saying that would be one of the subjects of the investigation.

He said the victims died of strangulation or blows to the head.

Earlier, he told MVS Radio that even though a message signed by the Zetas was left in one of the cars, investigators had not confirmed that the cartel was responsible.

Guadalajara sits on the main highway running through western Mexico from the methamphetamine-producing state of Michoacan north toward the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa where the cartel of the same name is based.

In Michoacan on Friday, the entire 32-member police department of the town of Caracuaro resigned following a series of threats from drug gangs and the near-kidnapping of almost half the force earlier in the day.

Fourteen of the town's officers were surrounded by gunmen, presumably from a drug cartel, and had to be rescued by soldiers. After their rescue, they fled the town, and the rest of the officers resigned.

Caracuaro town councilman Mario Tentory said officers had reported getting threats for some time. He said the Mexican army had temporarily taken over security duties in the town, which is in an area where cartels have long operated.

According to press reports, drug traffickers were angered because the police had participated in a firefight with gunmen in a neighboring town.

It was the fourth town in Michoacan where the entire police force has resigned in recent years.

"Now nobody wants to work for the local police, because everybody knows there is a law of 'cooperate or get shot'," Tentory said.

In recent months, security officials and analysts have worried that the region around Guadalajara could become a target for the Zetas, which has rapidly expanded since breaking with its old allies in the Gulf cartel in 2010.

The Zetas have been expanding west from their base on the Gulf coast, and Sinaloa has apparently been sending proxy forces eastward into the territory of the Zetas or their allies.

Killings in Guadalajara slowed to a trickle during the Oct. 15-30 Pan American Games, which brought a big influx of police and soldiers. Law enforcement officials and analysts said they were nonetheless concerned a Zetas onslaught could be imminent.

On Wednesday, 17 bodies were found burned in two pickup trucks in a strikingly similar attack in Sinaloa, the home state of the Sinaloa cartel. Twelve of the bodies were in the back of one truck, some of them handcuffed and wearing bulletproof vests.

Coronado said he was in contact with authorities in Sinaloa to determine if the deaths in Sinaloa and Guadalajara were related, because they were at least superficially similar.

12 comments:

what a waste of innocent people. they wasn't even Sinaloa or CDJNG cartel members, they were just regular hard working people from jalisco. this is the reason why so many people hate the zetas bcuz the killing of innocent people.freakin zeta faggs

10:49 how do u know? 15 year olds can kill you u know? All sorts of people are in this shit, u just dont know anymore. It dont matter was side they were as longest malverde,san judas,la santa muerte,santa voladora, and su puta madre handed them to LUCIFER.

funny how that dumb fucker says all those 26 bodies and none of them were cds or cjng jajaja bullshit u kiss asss chapo fucker.but i bet if the sinaloa cartel would've let the mssg you would be all over there nuts claming that the dead are zetas...remember when they killed the 50 persons in veracruz jaja most were all inocent ppl but like they left a mmsg that there were zetas ya cds nuthuggers start sucking dick too.CAN'T BELIEVE U FUCKERS THINK THIS CDS GUYS ARE UNTOUCHABLE JAJAJA THERE MEN JST LIKE US BLEED LKE US AND SWEAT AND SHIT JST LIKE US....I HATE SINALOA CUZ OF WHAT THEY DID TO MY NVO LAREDO IN 05.I HOPE U FUCKERS IN SINALOA FEEL THE PAIN AND DON'T GO CRYING TO EL CHAPO AND HIS MEXICAN ARMY ABOUT....STAND UP AND FIGHT U SINALOANSES COWARDS

I don't care who these dead people were,the point is that Mexico is a place where mass murders occur several a month,go unsolved then occur again and again. Where is it that such insanity is NORMAL it is TOLERATED by the govt. and citizens? In most places in the word carnage exists when there is NO GOVT at all, Mexico takes pictures of criminals but can't even keep people in jail?? No death penalty? The national politicians dress well and look good on TV-- end of story.

&8:33 am "I dont care who the dead people were"haha that would of been a funny comment except for the fact that I know you are being honest. A typical ignorant comment,haha I wish that was your family so I could comment the same thing.It would only be fair.

There u have it the brave zetas . I thought there the real deal that they only kill real cds members thats bullshit. Those punks are scum they aint shit and wont be shit. Arriba michoacan they stay zeta free. Oh I forgot theirs zetas there but their buried in a narco grave rotting up. Lol

Who in their right mind would believe the Zetas kill innocent people? Let me tell you something missy... They would never allow it! Stop trying to compare them to the scumbag CDS. We all know the Zetas only traffic drugs. Nothing more. LOL...

I don't know what the truth is, but it is has to be considered that they were all part of cds operations in some small way, halcones, or retailers, stash house guards, whatever, just because there is no extensive or existent criminal background is not proof they were innocents. Many people were probably new, or forced into crime because of poverty.

My mother has a friend, who had a relative that was identified to be his brother. Her brother was a hard working who owned a hamburger stand. From eye witness accounts he was in his truck going to the market to buy water and was never seen thereafter. He was found with a plastic bag taped to his head, stripped in his underwear tied and shot in the head.